Air circulating apparatus



Dec. 8, 1931. H. H. ROBSON 1,835,085

AIR CIRCULATING APPARATUS Filed July 1'7, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l N M NaMM INVENTOR Dec. 8, 1931.

w f 1 1 g 5 \7 r Q]. x QU r [1 1 g (in 1 fftihm f H. H. ROBSON Filed July 17, 1931 AIR CIRGULATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l NVENTOR Patented Dec. 8, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT orrlca HECTOR HARRIS ROBSON, OF NEW YORK, 11'.

OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF NEW Y., ASSIGNOR TO UNITED FRUIT comm.

JERSEY AIR OIRCULA'I'ING- APPARATUS Application filed July 17,

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for circulating air for purposes of ventilation or refrigeration and is particularly adapted for use on shipboard for preserving the cargo.

It is one of my objects to provide an apparatus which is simple in construction and which will occupy a substantially smaller amount of deck space than that required by most of the prior art devices of a similar nature. To this end my invention permits of substantial reduction in air passageways,

ducts, etc, which have been expensive and difiicult to manufacture and which have greatly reduced the carrying capacity of the ship. By my new apparatus I am able to evenly distribute cold air throughout the cargo without the use of return air ducts which are commonly employed in the prior art for that purpose.

In the particular embodiment of my invention which is herein described I have shown means for cooling the circulating air for purposes of refrigeration and it is a further object to reduce the amount of air cooling necessary for a given degree of cargo refrigeration. Further objects of my invention are to provide simplified means for controlling the amount of air circulation in any given section of the hold and also to provide air circulating apparatus of such a nature that the controlling means can be erected in an easily accessible position. a

The problem of preventing cargo drying and shrinkage due to evaporation of part of the Water content of the cargo, has presented difficulties in the prior art particularly in the shipment of fruit. Attempts have been made to remedy this objectionable feature by raising the relative humidity of the circulating air just before it enters the cargo compartment in an effort to thereby reduce its capacity for absorbing moisture from the cargo. However, even with the relative humidity at a maximum for the low tempera-- ture of the entering air the harmful effects have been found not to be entirely eliminated due to the fact that a rise in temperature of the air upon contact with one portion of the warm cargo will render the air at a lower 1931. Serial N0. 551,833.

relative humidity and hence increase its ca-.

pacity for thereafter absorbing additional moisture from another. portion of the car 0. It is one of my objects to reduce this harmgul water absorption by the warmed air by provldlng a system in which the amount of circulatlon of the air through the cargo after it has been warmed is materially reduced.

These and further objects of my invention Wlll appear from a more detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which, Fig. 1 is a sectional plan view of a cargo compartment of a ship equipped with my improved apparatus;

Fig, 2 is a sectional elevation on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation on. the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. '4 is a sectional elevation on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional elevation of my lmproved air control means;

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of one of the elements of the air control means.

I have not described in detail the construction of the various air ducts, partitions, bulkheads, etc. or of the floor grating. It is felt that that constitutes a matter of ship design which will vary with each individual ship in which my invention is sought to be incorporated and will readily present itself to the man skilled in the art when the principle of my invention is understood.

Referring to the drawings and more par-V ticularly to Figs. 1, 3 and 4 the numerals 1 and 2 indicate upper and lower decks, respectively, 3 and 4 the ships sides and 5 and 6 a pair of bulkheads all of which define a cargo carrying compartment 14 provided as shown with suitable doors and hatches. At one end and at both sides of the said compartment 14 I have shown a communicating A partment by the common opening 16 in which are located. a suitable number of fans 12, driven by motors 17 for drawing air from the compartment and passing it to port and starboard through the said ducts 10. Ereeted within the said ducts are temperature controlling means 11, which, if lower temperatures are desired, may consist of the ordinary brine coil system or any similar suitable refrigerating apparatus well known to the art. The air ducts 10 communicate by means of the curved passages 15 with the air ducts 13 which extend lengthwise of the ship and adjacent both sides thereof. As these side air ducts 13 are in all respects identical I will confine myself to a description of the one shown in vertical section in Fig. 2.

The side air ducts 13 (see also Fig. 3) are provided with a. number of partitions or air directors A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J which are constructed to form a corresponding number of downwardly curved air-passages a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h and j. The said air directors may connect at their lower extremities with the beams A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J respectively, each of which beams, as indicated in. Fig. 1, extends athwartship and may be joined at both ends by a corresponding pair of parallel curved air directors erected in both port and starboard air ducts 13. The said cross-beams are laid on the lower deck 2 and they in turn constitute supports for a floor grating 20, (Figs. 1, 3 and 4) which comprises a number of spaced beams laid lengthwise of the ship. This grating, which extends throughout the entire bottom of the compartment and acts as a flooring upon which the cargo rests, forms the upper enclosing boundary of a number of air passageways a, b, 0', d, e, f, g, h and j (Figs. 1 and 2) which are bounded on the bottom by the deck 2 and separated by the cross beams A, B, C, etc. From this construction it will be apparent that the air passageways a, b, 0, etc. connect with the passageways a, b, 0', etc. respectively to form a number of separate continuous air passages or channels to conduct the air downwardly lengthwise of the ship and thence across the ship under the grating 20. The spaces between the beams constituting the said floor grating 20 are of suflicient width to permit a flow of air upwardly into and through the cargo. It should be noted that air is introduced to the passages a, b, 0', etc. from both sides of the ship and that therefore a uniform flow upwardly through the various portions of the cargo crosswise of the ship is successfully maintained.

As shown in Fig. 2 and in detail in Fig. 5 my improved apparatus includes means for controlling the amount of air fiow, said means being designated generally at 30. For proper efliciency and economy of operation a device of this nature should be capable of aeeaosc controlling air flow through the various portions of the cargo independently and for that purpose I provide at the entrance to each of the passageways a, b, 0, etc. a door 31 which, as shown in detail in Fig. 6, is pivoted at 32 to suitable lugs extending from the frame work. The arcuate members 33 extend outwardly at both edges of the doors 31 and are slotted to receive the screw threaded members 34 provided with suitable thumb nuts for maintaining their respective doors in any desired position. By this arrangement of air control doors I am able to regulate the volume of air flow through any of the passages a, b, 0, etc. and their communicating fioor sections a, b, 0 etc. independently.

As shown in Fig. 1, the curved air passages 15 are provided with doors 35 through which access may be gained to the air control apparatus 30.

Although I have shown each one of the floor beams A, B, C etc. joining one corresponding pair of side air directors A, B, C, etc. to form a plurality of continuous air passages this construction is not essential. If desired, only the floor beams necessary to support the floor grating may be employed or if the top of the deck has been provided with a number of rises the may be found suitable for this purpose. ny desired number of side air directors A, B, C, etc. may be employed regardless of the number of cross beams and in the event that there are fewer cross beams than air directors the thwartship air passages will be correspondingly wider and less in number than the side air passages.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that I have provided a system in which circulating air by passing upwardly through the cargo from below is able to reach the most remote portions of the cargo and pass quickly out of contact therewith, thus substantially reducing harmful water absorption. The apparatus which I have described permits of a substantial reduction in cross sectional area of the side air ducts which have necessarily been very voluminous in thwartship systems to accommodate the large volume of air necessary for circulation laterally through the cargo and at thesame time my system dispenses with sharply curved side air duets with their attendant high fan speeds which have prevented practical use of air circulating systems of this general nature.

Various alterations may be made in the general form and arrangement of the parts of my apparatus without departing from the spirit of my invention which is to be limited only as indicated in the appended claims. Thus, the brine coils can be re laced by steam pipes if heating of the cargo in cold weather is desired or the air temperature controlling means can be entirely dispensed with and the apparatus used for circulating fresh air by and communicating with said end air-duct and a plurality of vertically spaced partitions 1n said side air-duct dividing the same into separate air-passages which communicate respectively with different spaces at the bottom of the cargo compartment.

2. A system as defined in claim 1 in which said partitions curve downwardly.

3. A system as defined in claim 1 in which control means are provided in the side airduct for regulating the quantity of air passing through the air-passages.

4. A system as defined in claim 1 in which means are provided for cooling the air in circulation.

5. A system as defined in claim 1 in which air-ducts are provided adjacent bothof two sides of the cargo compartment.

6. A system as defined in claim 1 in which the said air-passages are superposed, the lower passages communicating with spaces relatively near the end air-duct and the upper passages communicating with spaces relatively remote from said end air-duct, substantially as described.

A system as defined in claim 1 in which a flooring permeable to air is provided for supporting the cargo and in which the space beneath said flooring is divided transversely to form separate air channels beneath the cargo, with which channels the said air-passages communicate.

8. In an air-circulation system for a cargo compartment, an air-duct situated adjacent one end of the cargo compartment, means for withdrawing air from the cargo compartment through said end air-duct, an air-duct disposed along a side of said cargo compartment and communicating with said end air-duct, a plurality of partitions in said side air-duct dividing the same into separate air-passages which communicate respectively with different spaces at the bottom of the cargo compartment and means within said side air-duct for regulating the quantity of air passing through said air-passages.

9. As an element in a system for circulating air through a cargo compartment, an air duct consisting of an elongated structure containing a number of air directors consisting of vertically spaced partitions substantially horizontally disposed at the air entrance end of the air-duct and curving downwardly to various portions of the base thereof.

10. As an element in a system for circulating air through a cargo compartment, an airment, a

duct comprising a side wall of the compartpartition horizontally spaced from the side wall and a number of air directors joining the side wall of the compartment and the partition and leading from one end of the air-duct to various portions of the base there- HECTOR HARRIS ROBSON. 

